The On-Demand Virtual Assistant Solution

How to Get Ahead and Stay Ahead in Your Online Business

Time. Time. Time. I’m just too busy and don’t have enough time. Have you ever said that? I know I have (several times). Honestly, think about that statement for just a second. Is it empowering? No. Here’s the truth…

You have all the time in the world, it’s more about your daily decisions on how you choose to spend it.

The first step to getting ahead and staying ahead in your online business is to realize you can’t do it all. We know this to be true but we still justify that we have to do everything. There’s really only two reasons for this:

Lack of planning – We know we need to outsource some things but we need it done now. We can’t wait 24-48 hours for someone else to do it for us. This is more about our lack of planning ahead than it is the unresponsiveness of a virtual assistant.

I can’t afford to hire help – We try to do it all because we believe we cant’s afford to hire help. But what if I showed you a way to gain back a few hours of your week for just $25-$50 a month? More on this in just a moment.

One solution is to go out and hire a dedicated virtual assistant. This can definitely help but there are a few drawbacks. First, you’ll be training just one person. What if they decide to leave and do something else in a few months? You’ll be left with having to train someone new all over again.

Second, you’ll have to wait on one person to get your task completed. More than likely your virtual assistant will also have other clients besides you. You may have to wait if they are sick, on vacation or just tending to other client needs.

While I’m not against hiring a dedicated virtual assistant, I want you to think about hiring on-demand virtual assistants. By on-demand virtual assistants, we are referring to a team of virtual assistants who are at your disposal 24/7. What if you could delegate five tasks to five separate virtual assistants all at once? How quickly do you think those tasks would be completed?

Also, how long would it take one person to complete all five of those same tasks for you? I’m sure you are beginning to see the power in on-demand virtual assistants.

“Ninety-five percent of tasks can be done by an on-demand assistant. The great thing about coming to this realization is that it makes you bombproof. You don’t have to worry if something happens to the dedicated assistant you depend on.”

Later in the book, he goes on to say:

“The other great thing about using on-demand assistants is they’re very scalable. If you send out a hundred tasks in one hour, a hundred on-demand assistants will do them in that hour, and you’re still only paying x dollars a month.”

If you’re convinced that on-demand virtual assistants might be an option for you, here’s what I’d recommend to get started:

1. Open an account with FancyHands.com – Yes, it’s a funny name but a great service. I’ve used FancyHands.com for over two years now. They are all US-based virtual assistants ready to complete your tasks. You pay a flat monthly fee and receive a number of tasks per month. The good news is any unused tasks roll over month to month.

You can submit tasks to them via email, text, and online. They can do research, complete checklists, make phone calls, and schedule appointments for you. Here’s how much time I’ve saved using Fancy Hands.

2. Create recurring checklists using Clarify-It – If you want to really scale up your outsourcing, then create checklists using a software like Clarify-it. You can even set-up special login details for Fancy Hands (although I wouldn’t personally do this for financial logins). Once you create the checklist using Clarify-it, you can then export it to Evernote.

3. Create a notebook in Evernote – I have a specific notebook in Evernote for any checklist I have created. By doing this it makes the next step much easier.

4. Create a canned response email so you can email the task to Fancy Hands – I use the Canned Response add-on for gmail. This is great for emails you might send more than once. I simply explain that I have a checklist I’d like for them to complete (with the Evernote link to the checklist already added). This makes it super simple to send off quickly. Here’s an example:

The Evernote link in the above email is a checklist I created for members of Blogging Your Passion University who have forgotten their password. I’m able to send a quick “canned response” to Fancy Hands which includes the Evernote link to the checklist I created. Typically five minutes later I receive an email that the checklist is complete. I’m able to focus on where I work best in my business while still getting things done.

Jonathan has been blogging since 2009 and is still in awe that the Creator of the Universe desires to have a relationship with him. His passions include spending time with his kids, reading, March Madness, surprise get-a-way trips with his wife, and watching funny YouTube videos.

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